PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: A fifth suspect has been arrested in connection with the kidnapping and killing of a British mine clearance specialist and his Cambodian colleague by former Khmer Rouge fighters more than a decade ago, a judge said Saturday.
Puth Lim, a 52-year-old ex-Khmer Rouge soldier, was detained Friday on charges of premeditated murder and illegal confinement, said Ke Sakhan, a Phnom Penh Municipal Court investigating judge.
He said Puth Lim is accused of involvement in the 1996 abduction and death of Christopher Howes and his interpreter Huon Huot.
Puth Lim was allegedly the driver of Khem Ngun, a former Khmer Rouge commander who has also been detained and who witnesses allege gave the order to kill the two abducted men.
The Khmer Rouge seized Howes, of Bristol, England, and a group of Cambodian co-workers in March 1996 while the team was clearing mines in an isolated area about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Angkor Wat, the country's most popular tourist destination.
Howes, 37 at the time, managed to talk the abductors into freeing his other colleagues while he and the interpreter stayed behind as hostages for ransom.
Nothing more was heard of the two men for two years until a team of detectives from Scotland Yard said they had firm evidence Howes and Huon Huot had been taken to the Khmer Rouge stronghold of Anlong Veng and killed soon after their abduction.
The judge said police arrested Puth Lim at his home in Kampot province, 80 miles (130 kilometers) southwest of the capital, Phnom Penh.
Khem Ngun defected to the government in 1998 and was awarded the rank of major general in the Cambodian army. The Cambodian government did not arrest him at the time for fear of losing the trust of other Khmer Rouge guerrillas who were defecting.
The charges against Puth Lim and the other suspects carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
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